Pci-e lanes

[Davros]

Looking at the specs of some cpu's on intels web site
it will say :
Max# pci-e lanes = 16
Does that mean I'm limited to 16 lanes or does the chipset on the mboard supply additional lanes
tnx....

 

[pcchen]

Intel's consumer CPUs provide some additional lanes in the form of DMI. It's very similar to PCI express. Devices connected to PCH (the "chipset") ultimately connects to the CPU through this link.
The 16 lanes of PCIe are used for connecting to the GPU mostly.

 

[Davros]

so yes the motherboard adds additional pci-e lanes
looking at some motherboards none of them seem to mention how many lanes they add
just what pci-e slots they have

 

[pcchen]

The max number of PCIe lanes can be added depends on the chipset. For example, Z370 has 24 PCie lanes.

 

[pharma]

I think max PCIe lanes is also dependent on CPU. X99 boards can have either 28 or 40 PCIe lanes depending on what CPU is used.

 

[pcchen]

X99 is a different animal though, it's for LGA 2011 CPU which have more than 16 PCIe lanes (some have 28 lanes and others have 40 lanes).
Intel's consumer oriented CPU (those with LGA 115X socket) all have only 16 PCIe lanes and thus their chipsets normally have much more PCIe lanes.
Today only the so-called HEDT (high end desktop) Intel CPU with LGA 2066 have more than 16 PCIe lanes.
Some new Intel desktop CPU will also have thunderbolt integrated on the CPU, which can be seen as additional PCIe lanes.

Newer AMD CPU, on the other hand, typically have more than 16 PCIe lanes.